For the Brits: When will BREXIT referendum happen ?

[Stavros]

In practical terms, Brexit has begun: as of the 1st of September, UK Government officials will no longer participate in EU meetings. However, because the UK is still a full member of the EU, decisions which require the agreement of all 28 members will on the UK's behalf be made by Finland-

But the decision leaves the UK government with a reduced influence over new EU legislation, which will affect the UK for some time to come.
Because the UK is still entitled to a vote, the decision on how it should be cast will be delegated by power of attorney to Finland, which is the current rotating chair of the European Council.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-a9072956.html

Isn't independence wonderful?

[Stavros]

MPs will return from their summer holidays next week to spend the last two weeks of this Parliamentary Session. The Prime Minister has advised the Queen to prorogue this session of Parliament on the 14th of September, and to reconvene for her Gracious Speech on the 14th of October.
On one level there is nothing dramatic about this, the current session has been one of the longest, and the government has the right to use the technical measures known as Prorogation in which the Queen formally ends a Session. The timing is what has got everyone into a flap, because the Commons has yet to find a resolution to the endorsement of the Terms of Withdrawal under Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty that formally ends the first phase of the UK's exit from the EU, to begin the formal negotiations on the trading relationship both desire as the UK becomes an independent state. In addition, there is a conflict in the Commons on the logical position the government finds itself in: if there is no agreement on the Terms of Withdrawal, the UK will leave without a deal at 11pm on the 31st of October, and many MPs want to find a legal way to stop it.

So what Johnson has tried to do is short-circuit Parliamentary procedure to make a No Deal exit on the 31st of October the most obvious means of leaving. He insists he is trying to re-negotiate parts of the existing Terms of Withdrawal, but declared it is dead during his campaign to be leader of the Conservative Party, and the EU has said it is not re-opening negotiations, so one wonders what other than window dressing Johnson thinks he can achieve.

Some might have thought it best to see this Session through the the end of October at which time, if the UK does indeed leave the EU, Parliament could be Prorogued, a new Session begin with a new Queen's Speech setting out the legislative agenda for a new Britain outside the EU. There is also the complication that if the Opposition table a vote of No Confidence and the government loses, a General Election is the logical outcome, but Johnson thinks he will win a No Confidence vote.

Yet another prospect emerges: Johnson gets his way all the way to the 31st October, but loses so many votes on government legislation -his party has a majority of 1, with DUP support- he may be obliged to called a General Election.

One way and another, Brexit has made a complete mess of politics, to the extent that even with announcement today we still have no clear idea what, if anything will happen on the 31st October (the EU is unlikely to offer the UK an extension), we don't know if there will be a vote of No Confidence and if Johnson will lose it. We don't know if there will be a General Election before the 31st October or after it, we don't know if Jeremy Corbyn will be ousted as leader of the party at the end of September. And so on.

Watch this space....but expect the next developments to be replaced by others as the clock ticks down to the 31st of October.

[Stavros]

There are times when I wonder if I am living in the Twilight Zone. Each day seems to bear its unique moments of Brexit madness, while the tick clocks on to the magic moment itself, 11pm on the 31st October, no ifs, no buts, no treats, no tricks...so..

We have a Prime Minister who so far has lost every vote in the Commons, and like Stalin in the 1930s has begun to purge his Parliamentary Party of MPs who dared to vote against his wishes for a bill that proposes to make it impossible for the UK to leave the EU without a deal, MPs who in some case have been in the party for over 50 years but whose entire careers are now defined by - not even leaving the EU -but leaving as the Leader defines it. Pilloried by Brexit Revolutionaries in the press as 'Conservatives in name only', Johnson has lost 21 MPs and more to follow at a time when he needs all the votes he can get, he has alienated many people in his own party, and has watched his majority of 1 vanish into the ether, and as if that was not enough, does not even have the power to decide when the next General Election will be.

But here is where the language defies reason:
Johnson demands support for negotiating a revision to a deal which he has said is dead, which involves little or no change to the existing -dead- agreement because the negotiating team in Brussels has not put it on the table for consideration by the skeleton crew which has replaced the EU negotiating team that was disbanded in July. Johnson lied to the Commons when he said negotiations were taking place as the team did not arrive until hours later with nothing to offer, even as Johnson plots the exit without a deal in October.

Jeremy Corbyn, who voted against the deal the EU offered the UK, not once, but three times, now supports a Bill that makes it impossible for the UK to leave without a deal, but has not specified what it is Labour would expect to be in a deal agreed with the EU, which they say is the deal that was agreed with Theresa May that Corbyn rejected, while his deputy John McDonnell insists that Labour policy is to have a second referendum. So Corbyn wants a deal but won't say what it is, while proposing to reject the deal that does exist, and impose another Referendum on the people as if the first one had not caused enough damage, and, note, with no futher advice other than that Remain will be on the ballot paper.

At a time when the Tories are busy destroying their party, Labour, instead of presenting the country with the image of a strong opposition with a vibrant alternative to existing government policy is still incoherent, and led by a man with the charisma of a cheese sandwich, and a catastrophic inability to tell the truth abut his own views of the EU.

It is all bullshit. With or without a deal, the UK must negotiate a new relationship with the EU after it leaves and it may take yers to conclude it. On the basis of what we have seen so far, any hope of a positive outcome is unlikely. We shall be in the Twilight Zone for some time to come, and it doesn't even matter who is in government, as they have to manage Brexit, the clutch of controversial policies that may be impossible to manage.

[Jericho]

We have a Prime Minister who so far has lost every vote in the Commons, and like Stalin in the 1930s has begun to purge his Parliamentary Party of MPs who dared to vote against his wishes for a bill that proposes to make it impossible for the UK to leave the EU without a deal, MPs who in some case have been in the party for over 50 years but whose entire careers are now defined by - not even leaving the EU -but leaving as the Leader defines it. Pilloried by Brexit Revolutionaries in the press as 'Conservatives in name only', Johnson has lost 21 MPs and more to follow at a time when he needs all the votes he can get, he has alienated many people in his own party, and has watched his majority of 1 vanish into the ether, and as if that was not enough, does not even have the power to decide when the next General Election will be.

And then along comes Jo.
Comes to something when your own brother goes O.T.S. (would that count as incest)?

[Stavros]

And then along comes Jo.
Comes to something when your own brother goes O.T.S. (would that count as incest)?

Maybe incensed? This is what Boris said when Ed beat Dave to become Labour Party leader-

only a 'socialist would regard familial ties as being so trivial as to shaft his brother.'

[Jericho]

Maybe incensed? This is what Boris said when Ed beat Dave to become Labour Party leader-

only a 'socialist would regard familial ties as being so trivial as to shaft his brother.'

The delicious ironies of Boris Defloppy Johnson's leadership so far have not bypassed my notice.
Nor the increasing ranks of the glibdems.

[Jericho]

I used to have a hang on this politics thing, now I haven't got clue.
Is Johnson going to bring back a deal, is he going to break the law, are the courts going to reopen parliament? What the fuck is going on!

[Stavros]

The Incredible Hulk is going to break the chains that bind us to the EU...(don't know how to post a GiF)

https://twitter.com/IamHappyToast/status/1173344940044226561

[Stavros]

https://twitter.com/IamHappyToast/st...44940044226561

[Jericho]

He's just gone from incredible hulk to the invisible man!
I've discovered a new fondness for luxembergians!